Sunday, 4 November 2012

ZAMBIA UK Health Workforce Alliance (ZUKHWA), Tropical Health
Education Trust (THET) and the Zambia Government through the ministry of Health
have entered into an agreement to train Biomedical engineers locally to help in
repairing faulty medical machinery especially those used for operations in
theatres in hospitals.

The three organizations have identified Northern Technical
College (Nortec) in Ndola, Copperbelt province where the training will take
place and the first training will commence in September 2013 and a year later
machinery to work on will be made available.

The decision to train medical engineers in Zambia comes
after a request from government made then permanent secretary in the ministry
of health, Dr Simon Miti who had meetings with UK based health organization on
how best to improve the health sector.

The team pushing for the training programme to start has
already developed a curriculum together with Nortec management in order to suit
the institution’s teaching menu and staff.

Zambia UK Workforce Alliance and Tropical
Health Education Trust have promised to bring British volunteers to come and
help teach Zambians who in turn will be teaching others in the years to come.

The organizations observed that there is a lot of idle
medical machinery in hospitals because there are no qualified engineers to
repair. It is noted that most hospitals have mainly electrical engineers
unopposed to biomedical engineers.

The two organizations are impressed with the way the Zambian
government in supporting the training programme saying that it is showing a
positive signs.

Despite having identified Nortec as a suitable institution
to teach biomedical engineers, the organizations will not stop searching for
other institutions that can offer similar training so that many people can be
encouraged to train and take good care of the machines.

The other observation made on why many hospitals have idle
machines it is because most of them are donated and donors do not enquire on
the specifications needs of a particular hospital and if they develop a fault
no one can repair them because they do not come with menus to guide medical
personnel on what should be done.

The meeting also looked at anaesthesia research and
leadership programmes, partnership and volunteerism programmes, pathology and
psychiatry.

Meanwhile, Minister of community development, mother and
child health, Dr Joseph Katema says there is need for stakeholders in the
health sector to identify reasons and gaps in order to help reduce maternal
mortality by the year 2015.

He was speaking during maternal and newborn health
conference for’s mothers and babies at Hotel Intercontinental organized by
Zambia-UK Health Workforce Alliance (ZUKHWA).

Dr Katema said Zambia has the challenge of doubling efforts
in order to attain the MDG 5 and that there is less progress on this goal. He
said minimal improvements have been seen: the number of maternal deaths per
100,000 live births has reduced from 729 in 2001 to 591 in 2007.

He said there is enormous difference between the number of
women from the high income groups who have access to a skilled birth attendant
compared to those from the low income groups. He said globally it is estimated
that 210 in 100,000 women die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth but
Zambia is well above average at 591 per 100,000 live birth.

Dr Katema said, “Zambia faces challenges of shortage of
skilled workers, poor health infrastructure, shortage of material resources;
difficulties of access to the healthcare due to long distances and poor or non
existence of passable roads. Aggravating these are of a high HIV prevalence
poor water sanitation.”

Dr Katema encouraged stakeholders in the health sector to
keep in mind that since countries of the world signed up to the millennium
development goals, they have been committed to making improvements and
safeguarding the lives of women and children and that the commitment should be
kept in mind.

He said his ministry has the responsibility to ensure that
it improves the lives of women and children especially targeting those in poor
communities.

“I implore you that together we should do everything in our
power to identify gaps and develop strategies so that we improve safety and car
of mothers and children in Zambia. This is a collective effort and demands the
highest level of professional skills and commitment,” he said.